C L A R K E ' S   B O O K S H O P
211 LONG STREET, CAPE TOWN  8001, SOUTH AFRICA

NEW ARRIVALS
December 2009


 

TEN YEARS OF THE CAINE PRIZE FOR AFRICAN WRITING, , 205 pp., hardback, Oxford, 2009.

  R200
  A collection of the ten stories that have won the Caine Prize for African Writing since 2000.

Introduction by Ben Okri.

Includes stories by Nadine Gordimer, J.M.Coetzee, Mary Watson and Henrietta Rose-Innes from South Africa and Brian Chikwava from Zimbabwe.
 

Behr (M.) KINGS OF THE WATER, , 242 pp., paperback, London, 2009.

  R210
  A new novel by Mark Behr, author of the award-winning "The Smell of Apples".

Mark Behr divides his time between South Africa and the United States where he is Associate Professor of World Literature and Fiction Writing at the College of Santa Fe, New Mexico.
 

Brown (A.) REFUGE, , 271 pp., paperback, Cape Town, 2009.

  R190
  A new thriller by award-winning author Andrew Brown. His thriller, "Coldsleep Lullaby", won the 2006 Sunday Times Fiction Prize. His work of non-fiction, "Street Blues, experiences of a reluctant policeman" was shortlisted for the 2009 Alan Paton Award.

Andrew Brown practices as an advocate in Cape Town and is a reservist sergeant in the South African Police Service.
 

Butler (A.) CONTEMPORARY SOUTH AFRICA, , 244 pp., maps, paperback, New York, (2004) 2009.

  R308
  A revised and updated second edtion of Anthony Butler's introduction to South Africa's social, political, cultural and economic life in the twenty-first century, and its changing role in the world.

"This timely book fills an important gap: a reliable, intelligent and accessible introduction to contemporary South Africa...he is particularly deft in summarizing hotly contested debates around social policy, economic development, and how race and class pattern South African life in the twenty-first century." Professor Colin Bundy, University of Oxford, on the first edition

Anthony Butler is Professor of Political Studies, University of the Witwatersrand
 

Depelchin (J.) SILENCES IN AFRICAN HISTORY, between the syndromes of discovery and abolition, 256 pp., paperback, Dar es Salaam, 2005.

  R395
  Jacques Depelchin examines and analyses the dominant political, social, economic, cultural and ideological theories on Africa and discusses the misconceptions about Africa and Africans that have been accepted as facts.

"This is a book about academic violence; collective intellectual denial; culpable erasure; and deliberate omission. But it is also about emancipation and liberation; for it explores the complex linkages between historical knowledge and our collective freedom." Ibrahim Abdullah, from his preface

Historian Jacques Depelchin has taught at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and the Centre of African Studies in Maputo, Mozambique. He is currently the executive director of the Ota Benga International Alliance for Peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
 

Dlamini (J.) NATIVE NOSTALGIA, , 169 pp., paperback, Johannesburg, 2009.

  R180
  Jacob Dlamini's account of his childhood in Katlehong, a township east of Johannesburg, in which he examines what it means for black South Africans to remember their lives under apartheid.

Jacob Dlamini is a 2009 Ruth First Fellow and a PhD student in History at Yale University.
 

Ferreira (I.) ITALIAN FOOTPRINTS IN SOUTH AFRICA/ SULLE ORME DEGLI ITALIANI IN SUDAFRICA, , 170 pp., b/w & colour illus., paperback, Johannesburg, 2009.

  R220
  A history of Italian immigrants to South Africa, and their decendants.

Text in English and Italian.
 

Francis (S.) & Rico STRIKE WHILE THE IRON IS HOT, , 152 pp., illus., paperback, Johannesburg, 2009.

  R150
  The new collection of "Madam & Eve" cartoon strips that appear in numerous South African newspapers.
 

Gumede (W.) & Dikeni (L.) eds. THE POVERTY OF IDEAS, South African democracy and the retreat of intellectuals, 258 pp., paperback, Johannesburg, 2009.

  R180
  A collection of essays that examine the devaluation of ideas and the intellect and the intolerance of criticism and dissent in post-apartheid South Africa.

Contributions include "Building a Democratic Political Culture" by William Gumede,
"Our Intellectual Dilemma: the pseudo-intellectuals" by Leslie Dikeni,
"The Role of Revolutionary Intellectuals: the life of Comrade Mzala" by Jeremy Cronin,
"African Intellectuals and Identity: overcoming the political legacy of colonialism" by Mahmood Mamdani, and
"Intellectuals, the State and Universities in South Africa" by Jonathan Jansen.

William Gumede is Senior Associate and Programme Director, Africa Asia Centre, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and Honorary Associate Professor, Graduate School of Public and Development Management, University of the Witwatersrand. He is the author of "Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC" (2005).
Leslie Dikeni is Research Associate at the Department of International Politics, University of Pretoria.
 

Hackforth-Jones (J.) BETWEEN WORLDS, voyagers to Britian 1700-1850, 120 pp., b/w & colour illus., paperback, London, 2007.

  R350
  Published to accompany the 2007 exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London this catalogue tells the stories of several non-European men and women who visited Britian between 1700 and 1850, largely as a result of colonial development, exploitation and warfare. Includes a chapter on Sara Baartman.
 

Hawkey (I.) FEET OF THE CHAMELEON, the story of African football, 312 pp., map, b/w & colour illus., hardback, d.w., London, 2009.

  R159
  African reporter Ian Hawkey traces the development of African football and charts the continent's journey to its first World Cup in 2010.
 

Irele (F.A.) ed. THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO THE AFRICAN NOVEL, , 282 pp., paperback, Cambridge, 2009.

  R290
  A collection of essays on fiction in the European languages and Arabic from North Africa and African south of the Sahara.

Contributions include "The Afrikaans Novel" by Christopher Warnes,
"Chinua Achebe and the African Novel" by Dan Izevbaye,
"Protest and Resistance" by Barbara Harlow,
"The African Historical Novel" by M.Keith Booker,
"Magical Realism and the African Novel" by Ato Quayson, and
"The African Novel and the Feminine Condition" by Nana Wilson-Tagoe.

F.Abiola Irele is Visiting Professor in the Department of African and African American Studies and the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard University.
 

Key (L.) dir. DISTANT COUSINS, healing power of nature, 24 minutes, DVD, Cape Town, 2008.

  R295
  Documents the relationship quadraplegic painter Kat Jagoe-Davies and her husband Bryan Davies developed with a troop of baboons in Pringle Bay.
 

Krog (A.) BEGGING TO BE BLACK, , 291 pp., paperback, Cape Town, 2009.

  R220
  "In 1992, a gang leader was shot dead by an ANC member in Kroonstad. The murder weapon was then hidden on Antjie Krog's stoep. In 'Begging to Be Black', Krog begins by exploring her position in this controversial case. From there the book ranges widely on scope, both in time - reaching back to the days of Basotho king Moshoeshoe - and in space - as we follow Krog's experiences as a research fellow in Berlin, far from the Africa that produced her." from the flyleaf

This book is shortlisted for the 2010 Alan Paton Award for non-fiction.

Award-winning journalist and poet Antjie Krog has published eight volumes of poetry, several of which have been translated. The book, "Country of My Skull" (1998), her account of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which she covered for the SABC and Mail & Guardian newspaper, won numerous awards, including the Alan Paton Award and the Olive Schreiner Award. It was followed in 2003 by "A Change of Tongue", in which she examines issues of transformation.
 

Mangcu (X.) THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT, South Africa's prospects under Jacob Zuma, 200 pp., paperback, Johannesburg, 2009.

  R180
  Newspaper columnist and public commentator Xolela Mangcu discusses the state of South Africa's democracy and provides an informed prognosis of its future. He looks at the state of the political opposition, the courts and the media and examines President Zuma's style and philosophy of government.

Xolela Mangcu writes regulalry for Busniess Day newspaper. He is a non-resident Senior Scholar at the Brookings Institution, Washington, and convener of the Platform for Public Deliberation, a not-for-profit think-tank at the University of Johannesburg. He is also the author of "To the Brink: the state of democracy in South Africa" (2008).
 

Mda (Z.) BLACK DIAMOND, , 207 pp., paperback, Johannesburg, 2009.

  R190
  A new novel about life in contemporary Gauteng.

"Zakes Mda may have a more central place in South Africa's literary and political life than any other novelist today." The New York Times Magazine

Writer, painter, composer, film maker and playwright Zakes Mda's previous novels include "Ways of Dying", "Cion", "Whale Caller", "Madonna of Excelsior" and "Heart of Redness".
 

Meeran (Z.) SARACEN AT THE GATES, , 360 pp., paperback, Johannesburg, 2009.

  R150
  Winner of the 2008/2009 European Union Literary Award. Shortlisted for the 2010 Sunday Times Fiction Prize.

Zinaid Meeran's debut novel "gives a glimpse into the world of Zakira, queen of the curry mafia, and her friends who play nice Muslim girls by day and pill-popping clubbers at night. Carefully balancing hilarity, romance and poignancy, Meeran paints a convincing portrait of a world of fluid identities, rigid customs, crazy lesbian punks and sex-slave traders. A fast-moving, wholly modern romp of a novel" Tymon Smith in the Sunday Times

Filmmaker Zinaid Meeran was born in Pietermaritzburg in the 1970s. He now lives in Cape Town.
 

Morton (F.) WHEN RUSTLING BECAME AN ART, Pilane's Kgatla and the Transvaal frontier, 1820-1902, 314 pp., map, illus., paperback, Cape Town, 2009.

  R230
  Fred Morton tells the story of Insang Pilane and his two successors, his son Kgamanyane and grandson Linchwe, who led the Kgatla people to political and military prominence in the western Transvaal and eastern Bechuanaland in the 19th century.

Fred Morton, now retired, was senior lecturer at the University of Botswana and Professor of History at Lorcas College, Iowa.
 

Mqhayi (S.E.K.) ABANTU BESIZWE, historical and biographical writings, 1902-1944, 625 pp., paperback, Johannesburg, 2009.

  R220
  Edited and translated by Jeff Opland.

Author, poet, newspaper editor, historian and translator S.E.K.Mqhayi (1875-1945) was a great Xhosa praise poet and earned the title "Imbongi yesizwe jukelele", the poet of the whole nation. Although a great figure in the history of South African literature his achievement has never been fully appreciated as he wrote only in Xhosa. This new volume of Mqhayi's writings, edited and translated by Jeff Opland, with the assistance of Luvo Mabina, Koliswa Moropa, Nosisi Mpolweni and Abner Nyamende, contains 65 historical and biographical essays contributed to newspapers between 1902 and 1944, as orginally published, with facing English translations.

Jeff Opland is Visiting Professor of African Language Literatures at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and Research Fellow in the Department of African Languages, University of South Africa (UNISA).
 

Nkoli (S.) TILL THE TIME OF TRIAL, the prison letters of Simon Nkoli, 48 pp., b/w & colour illus., paperback, (Johannesburg), (2007).

  R95
  A collection of edited extracts from gay activist Simon Nkoli's letters to his lover Roy Shepherd, written between 1985 and 1987 while he was in prison as one of the Delmas Treason trialists. Simon Nkoli died in 1998 of AIDS-related complications.
 

Raftopoulos (B.) & Mlambo (A.) eds. BECOMING ZIMBABWE, a history from the pre-colonial period to 2008, 260 pp., maps, illus., paperback, Harare & Johannesburg, 2009.

  R210
  A history of Zimbabwe from 850 to 2008.

Introduction by Brain Raftopoulos and Alois Mlambo.
Gerald Mazarire provides the pre-colonial background, Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni discusses the history up to WWII, and Alois Mlambo reviews developments in the settler economy and the emergence of nationalism leading to UDI in 1965. The politics and economics of the UDI period and the subsequent war of liberation are covered by Joseph Mtisi, Munyaradzi Nyakudya and Teresa Barnes. James Muzondidya's chapter discusses developments from independence in 1980 to the beginning of the current crisis and Brain Raftopoulos concludes the book with an analysis of the decade-long crisis and the global political agreement which followed.
 

Rogers (D.) THE LAST RESORT, a memoir of Zimbabwe, 312 pp., map, paperback, 2009, Jhbg.

  R195
  Award-winning journalist and travel writer Douglas Rogers' memoir about his parents' daily struggles to hold onto their farm in present day Zimbabwe.

"Do we really need another memoir by a white Zimbabwean? The surprising answer is yes, if it's as good as Douglas Rogers' 'The Last Resort'". Alex Perry, Time magazine

"I read it in a single sitting. I loved it." Rian Malan
 

Tamarkin (M.) VOLK AND FLOCK, ecology, identity and politics among Cape Afrikaners in the late nineteenth century, 230 pp., paperback, Pretoria, 2009.

  R163
  A sequel to Mordechai Tamarkin's "Cecil Rhodes and the Cape Afrikaners", in which he explored the evolution of Cape Afrikaner ethnic identity and consciousness mainly in the latter part of the 19th century. This book focuses on the opposition of the majority Afrikaner sheep farmers in the 1890s to the Scab Act legislation.
 

Trewhela (P.) INSIDE QUATRO, uncovering the exile history of the ANC and SWAPO, 242 pp., paperback, Johannesburg, 2009.

  R180
  A collection of journalist Paul Trewhela's essays on the ANC and SWAPO in exile, first published between 1990 and 2009, mostly in "Searchlight South Africa". Also includes the article, "A Miscarriage of Democracy: the ANC Security Department in the 1984 mutiny in Umkhonto we Siswe", a first-hand autobiographical narrative by Bandile Ketelo, Amos Maxongo, Zamxolo Tshona, Ronnie Masango and Luvo Mbengo.

Paul Trewhela worked in underground journalism with Ruth First and edited the underground journal of MK, "Freedom Fighter", during the Rivonia Trial. He was a political prisoner from 1964-67. In exile in Britain, he was co-editor of "Searchlight South Africa", banned in South Africa.